WI Media Fail - Updated

By Jeff Simpson

One of the many reasons that Scott Walker has been able to run roughshod over our great state is that the Wisconsin Media, who are entrusted to bring us the unvarnished truth to keep our democracy going, has let us down.   

Let's look at a couple recent examples. 

1.  Scott Walker announced, what everyone knew, that he would be running for a third term in office.  The Capital Times had the story:

"For me, it really doesn't matter who comes out of that primary; it’ll be more of the same," Walker said. "It’ll be about as clear a contrast as you can get between continuing to move forward or moving backwards."
What gives Walker pause, he said, is not the candidates running against him, but the national groups that will likely spend money in hopes of defeating him. Those include the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, backed by former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder, and the Service Employees International Union.

Let's take a quick look at the Recall:

The top outside groups for Walker were:
Right Direction Wisconsin, created by the Republican Governor's Association (RGA), which gave $8.7 million.
Billionaire David Koch, one of the main backers of Americans for Prosperity. He gave $1 million to the RGA.
Americans For Prosperity (AFP), a conservative group linked to David and his brother Charles Koch, spent $3 million. Tim Phillips, president of Americans for prosperity told CBS News that beyond airing ads, his group sent 75 trained staffers into Wisconsin to knock on doors for Walker.
In addition, AFP spent $7 million promoting Walker's agenda last year, launching an ad campaign just two days after the governor introduced legislation ending collective bargaining for public unions.
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce), spent $2 million for Walker.
The anti-union Center for Union Facts spent $1 million, the National Rifle Association spent $800,000, and the Tea Party Express spent $400,000.

Apparently, national groups spending money FOR Scott Walker is to be expected and logical, national groups spending money against him....that makes him aghast he does not quite understand that.     We will never know because during the interview with the Cap Times, no one dared question him on the fact that he has been the recipient of an incredible largess of spending from outside groups but he is worried that it might be too much for him to overcome in a bid for re-election.   

When you put that in a story, without challenging it, you are essentially taking dictation.  

2.  The Wisconsin state Journal allows a republican ridiculous attack on Tony Evers.

Ever since State Superintendent Tony Evers launched his gubernatorial campaign, Republicans have been hammering him over his role in a 2009 case that rocked a Dane County school districtinvolving a middle school teacher who looked at pornography during school hours.
Republicans last week and again on Monday used the case to argue that Evers, who did not revoke the teacher’s license, is unfit for the job he wants to take away from Gov. Scott Walker, and there’s no sign the issue will go away before the August primary election.

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it does it make a noise? 

If the WISGOP tries to make an issue of something that is complete and utter Bullshit is it an actual issue?  

That is a question we will never know, because every time the WISGOP through something against the wall, the Wisconsin Media cant regurgitate it enough.   

The issue will not go away, because every time the WISGOP brings it up, the media will continue to report it and get "both sides" like it is a legitimate issue.   

To be fair here to Molly Beck though, she did go into detail why this story is BS: 

Evers maintains he didn’t have the legal authority to revoke Andrew Harris’ license because the teacher’s actions didn’t involve children — a “loophole” in state law he worked with lawmakers to fix in 2011 because of the case.
“It did not fit the law,” Evers said on Friday, dismissing the continued criticism of his decision. “So, therefore we recognized the problem and we fixed it by working with legislators to change the law.”

Tony Evers had no standing whatsoever, under the law, to revoke this teachers license and the fact that Scott Walker asked him to, to score political points shows Walkers ignorance and lack of respect for the law.    

Evers then worked bipartisanly with the legislature to get the law changed so in the future he could.  

Although since this happened, the legislature was so worried about cases like this they extremely relaxed teacher licensing guidelines.   

After a long drawn out process, and after it went through numerous court systems, this teachers firing was overturned to a suspension  The teacher is now still in the district, in a new position, at a different school and the district is happy to have him back:

Meanwhile, the district that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire H**** now backs him and challenged Republicans’ suggestion that children are unsafe in his classroom because of Evers’ decision.
“We are absolutely not concerned. The case was never about that,” Middleton-Cross Plains district spokesman Perry Hibner said, adding the teacher “has done great work since his return, as his students and their families will attest. We have moved ahead and our focus continues to be on making sure every student feels included and inspired every day.”  

While the school district wants to inspire kids, the WISGOP of Leah Vukmir, Scott Walker, Mark Morgan, etc, do not care who gets hurt, or what the facts are they just want to make sure to score political points everyday.   

Let's hope that this story never gets put in the local media again after today and that the media stops printing the outright falsehoods for one side, as if they are credible reports that need to be addressed.   

Edit note - update:  What happens when the media fail, and do not bring people the news?  They become less relevant, and like most of corporate America, the execs make more money and the workers pay the price.   

The Wisconsin State Journal on Oct. 31 parted ways with two veteran journalists in the latest round of downsizing of the already bare-bones staff at the newspaper, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
Photo editor Steve Apps and assistant city editor and Beer Baron columnist Chris Drosner confirmed to Isthmus they are no longer employed at the newspaper. Both declined to comment further, citing the terms of their separation agreements.  

Lowell Holtz's Comedy of Errors

By Jeff Simpson

Molly Beck of the Wisconsin State Journal reported on the Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction race after the primary but there are some holes that need to be filled in.

On the April 4 ballot will be two-term incumbent Tony Evers, a public school advocate backed mostly by liberals and teachers unions who has been at odds with Republicans for years over his adoption of the Common Core State Standards and his opposition to the expansion of private school vouchers in the state.

While it is true that Superintendent Evers has been a supporter of Common Core, it is not necessarily true that he has been at odds with Republicans for years over this.   It was just a few years ago that Governor Walker ws a supporter.  While Common Core is far from perfect, the biggest objection to it seems to be that President Obama supported it.

His challenger, Lowell Holtz, is backed mostly by conservatives and school voucher supporters. He is making his second run for the position and opposes the Common Core State Standards and favors expansion of educational options — including taxpayer-funded vouchers — other than public schools.

So teachers unions (the bogeyman) supports Superintendent Evers and Dr. Holz just has generic 'school voucher supporters" in his corner.   In case you need some clarification.  School voucher supporters are funded by this woman and enacted by this formerly convicted felon.  

Holtz got 23 percent of the vote Tuesday, and was dogged by allegations he sought to get out of the race in exchange for a guaranteed, taxpayer-funded $150,000 job that would let him oversee the state’s largest school districts, including Madison.

Its not allegedly! 

Evers is seeking a third term in the wake of massive membership losses for the state’s largest teachers union — a strong campaign contributor for Evers in the past— setting the stage for the potential of third-party groups spending on behalf of Holtz to ensure the election of a voucher supporter.

The states largest teachers union, has massive membership losses strictly because of the passage of ACT10, which was put in place to punish Scott Walkers "enemies".  

 “We have absolutely no control over whether that comes in or not,” Holtz said about outside spending. “It’s illegal for me to work with them. I’m supposed to run my own race. If they do get involved, I have no control over it.”

Cough  cough

A spokesman for Wisconsin’s arm of the pro-voucher group American Federation for Children did not respond to a request for comment. 

The whole point of outsider, dark money, and past history of moral failings by their spokesman, Scott Jensen shows us they are not always the most forthcoming.   However the money to attack Tony Evers will be forthcoming.    Count on it!

 “If it’s all in, it’ll be very difficult to compete with that amount of money. There’s just not that much in the state that’s available,” Evers said. “And we’re talking about Amway money and the money from the family that owns Walmart and I don’t know any of those people.”

While Superintendent Evers has never been the best campaigner, coming off his massive primary drubbing of his opponents, is very much in the drivers seat.  We do have to stay vigilant though! 

Holtz said he has not sought any money from outside groups.

Yo, Lowell!

  

 

Republican lobbyist and former state party official Brandon Scholz said the donors to outside groups that typically spend on behalf of conservative candidates in spring races are not necessarily going to spend in a state superintendent race, even if the candidate is aligned with their ideology.

 In other words, why throw money at this race, when they have already bought the legislature.  

Holtz is the latest conservative Republican and ALEC candidate for state superintendent to try to defeat an incumbent backed by Democrats and teachers.

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 There fixed it,.,... 

Holtz was recruited to run by a former Republican lawmaker. He was one of more than a dozen candidates interviewed by a nonprofit group headed by former Rep. Don Pridemore of Hartford called Wisconsin Needs Necessary Education Reform, or WINNER.
An email released Wednesday by the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now written by Holtz when he was superintendent of Whitnall School District shows Holtz in January 2016 expected the group to do organizing and fundraising for him.  

Does anyone really think Don Pridemore is running the opposition?  He was the candidate last time, got destroyed and his candidacy was so bad that even GOP sycophant and gopher James Wigderson did not endorse him.   

The person who is running the show, which we were able to find out thanks to One Wisconsin Now obtaining these emails, is Billionaire widow, and high school diplomaed, Diane Hendricks.  

Holtz and Pridemore had these discussions, via school (ie Government funded ) email, which really upsets our friends on the right when a Democrat does it.    Also as a School district superintendent and former long time state Assembly Rep, both know better than to actually have those discussions via school email.  Yet did not care.   

 Between now and the April 4 general election the group will seek to “educate voters” about the race. “If we want any education reform, the only way to get it is through the DPI superintendent and (Evers) shows no sign of reforming anything,” Pridemore said. 

I hate to have to point out to former Assembly Rep Pridemore, that a true way to education reform would be through the assembly.    Of course Mr. Pridemore would not know that because the way our current Government works, people inside the GOP party are told what to do and how to think if they want to keep their job.     

“So far, he’s shown us an abysmal lack of ethics and commitment to public service in pursuit of his personal political ambitions and enrichment,” OWN research director Jenni Dye said. “Now we find out he never even intended to do work on his own campaign, claiming that outside groups were going to do the organizing and fundraising for him.”

Yes Jenni is correct he never intended to do any of his own real work, because we know from experience, like Dave Blaska, Holtz is just a figurehead for the right in their bid to buy Wisconsin,    They want people who will do what their told, no matter how much heat they get.   Hoping to get rewarded with some of the wing nut welfare money they hand out.  

The Holtz-Humphries controversy in the last week of the race, contested school board races in Madison and a burst of political interest following the election of Donald Trump as president may have contributed to a larger turnout than usual in spring primaries. And unusually warm February weather might have helped get people to the polls, too, observers say.

Mentioning some of the most ridiculous slimy people in Wisconsin(Coward Clarke, Orv Seymer, etc...) and the one person they want to distance themselves(even in private) from is Robin Vos.  

 In the end we had about an 8% voter turnout for the primary which is hardly something to rave about.   However with the people that turned out,. like communities all over Wisconsin, have shown that they overwhelmingly support our public schools.    

We see the lengths that our friends on the right will go to to tap into public education money.   Ethics, law and logic get thrown out the window when there is an opportunity to make a buck! 

Finally, a few interesting observations that have surfaced during this race.  

*  John Humphries garnered a whopping 6% of 8% of the electorate.  That translates into about family members only.  Humphries tried a new "bipartsian" approach by having Jeremy Thiesfeldt( R- far far right) and Jason Fields (D- AFC) as his campaign co-chairs.    Apparently Mr. Thiesfeldt and Mr. Fields are not as popular or as respected as they think they are.  Lucky for them they were drawn very safe seats.   

*  In their email correspondence, they gushed over how much they like Orville Seymer and CFG.   Anyone who has followed CogDis, knows that Mr. Seymer is the true definition of slime.   He makes used car salesmen seem like the Pope.    

*  Another interesting topic, which our friends at Democurmudgeon pointed out :

In the email, Holtz describes being supported conservative Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Republican state Rep. Jim Ott. Holtz's wife wrote back and suggested not mentioning Vos: "Fitzgerald seems to be more well liked in the republican camp," she said.

Paul Ryan Rallies The (Wrong) Troops

By Jeff Simpson

Today, Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) capped off a very bad week.  He started it last weekend when the GOP held a rally in Elkhorn, WI.

While it was full of the standard red meat of people who make it a family affair and show up in their best "Trump that Bitch" T-shirt.  While the media eats it up, because they can run around and interview people who you sweat just came from Glenn Grothman's family reunion (by the way he has an incredible opponent this election, Sarah Lloyd, and the world will owe the 6th Congressional District a debt of gratitude if you send her to Washington!),

The real drama at this rally though, was what was going on that night before.  The "pussy" tape was revealed that day and that night, the Donald went from headliner, just another speaker to uninvited.  Paul Ryan wanted to distance himself from The Donald who he thought was finally becoming toxic, so he invited  his Vice Presidential running mate,

Apparently there is someone with common sense is in the Ryan inner circle because they informed Mr. Ryan that inviting Mr. Pence was NOT distancing himself from The Donald.   Then Mr. Pence was unceremoniously dumped.

Lost in the shuffle, was the fact that Paul Ryan put out a statement on the Donald's sexual assault tapes and was almost as condescending and misogynist:

“Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified." 

Paul Ryan is sure that it was his rib that eve was made from, and he will "champion" all women.   It is understandable, because thanks to his wife's family fortune(sounds familiar) he is able to continue his wine habits.   

Lucky for Mr. Ryan, the media kowtows to him and never brings up his actual record with the women he has "championed".  For instance, he held a meeting on women's access to contraception  and had a total of zero women invited to the conversation.   Apparently he was revering them from afar.    Let's also not forget this gem where he champions the ability of women to not have an abortion if they get pregnant after being raped(how many lil Donnies would be running around if that were law) 

A good post at Kos, runs down Paul Ryan's record with women:

And what about you, Paul Ryan? How have you personally “championed” women? Was it in 1998 when you said that women should be criminally prosecuted for terminating pregnancies? When you tried to prevent women serving overseas in our military from having abortions in U.S. military hospitals even when they paid for it out of their own pockets? How about when you worked with Todd Akin to narrow the legal definition of rape to “forcible rape”? Or maybe it was in 2009 when you co-sponsored the “Sanctity of Life” Act which declared a fertilized egg a “person” and outlawed abortions, most forms of contraception and in-vitro fertilization? The numerous times you have voted to defund Planned Parenthood? In 2011 when you supported the “Let Women Die Bill” that allowed hospitals to refuse to terminate pregnancies even when the woman’s life was in danger?Was it when you opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? Opposed paid family leave? 

 
The The Donald, having had a night to digest what happened, did what he does best - go unhinged on Twitter:

Then Mr. Ryan closed out the week at a semi hyped speech he gave to the UW College Republicans, who are chaired by Alex Walker.   Ryan, the great uniter who is sick of the vitriol this election, gave a speech about the evils of some thing he made up called "LiberalProgressivism".    Apparently this Liberal Progressivism is the root of all evil.   After his speech laming liberals for everything from the Billy the Kid to the Berlin wall to Billy Bush, he then took "questions" from the college kids.   Amazingly, these "completely random" questions, never once mentioned some guy name Donald Trump. 

Of course when it came time to face the actual reporters, Ryan turned into Houdini and escaped immediately.   Paul Ryan is prepared to take the fight to ISIS but not prepared to answer a question from Molly Beck or Jessie Opoien.

Then, Paul Ryan ended his week making the case for Russ Feingold.   Seriously.

 Jessica ArpVerified account‏@news3jessica.@PRyan says if Senate is flipped that @BernieSanders will become chairman of the budget committee. #news3

Paul Ryan has never had much of an idea what was happening in Wisconsin, because he is in Congress to represent an elite group of people from New York's Wall St.  Unfortunately for Mr. Ryan and for his friend Ron Johnson, no one told Paul that Bernie Sanders is wildly popular in WI and handily won the primary here.

There is not much news that Mr. Ryan could have told the hard core Bernie supporters that would make them want to run to the polls faster, knowing that the best way to give Bernie that kind of power is to flip our Senate seat and send Russ Feingold back to Washington and Ron Johnson back to his daddy-in-law's protecting arms!